Alf Christophersen wrote:

> On Tue, 13 Jan 2004 00:38:19 GMT, "JE Anderson" >
> wrote:
>
>>My question is: Is the coconut macaroon a Canadian or Western Canadianism
>>or did others grow up with the same definition of macaroon?
>
> Kokosmakroner is a very old cake in Norway at least. But there are
> several varieties of "makroner" too. But, from Italy we also have
> "makaroni", but that is something very different, a kind of pasta, and
> not sweet at all.

As the Italian alphabet only uses "K" when importing foreign words, I
wonder where this notion came from. Italian pasta has been called,
through several variant spellings over the centuries (but none with a
"K"), maccheroni, maccaroni, macaroni, macheroni and still other
regional ones. Pasta is such an integral part of the Italian culture
that there are, indeed, sweet pasta dishes.

Macaroons with coconut aren't favored in Italy. Coconut isn't even
mentioned in the 12 books I checked recently for an article mad none
of the macaroon recipes included it. The closest Italian cookie is the
amaretto made with almonds or the pits of peaches, nectarines and
other fruit with that sort of stone. "Amaretti" is the generic name
for them whether dry and crisp or softer and more moist.

Pastorio.